Daphne Major is a volcanic island just north of Santa Cruz Island and just west of the Baltra Airport in the archipelago Colon, commonly known as the Galápagos Islands. It consists of a tuff crater, devoid of trees, whose rim rises 120 metres above the sea.
Though easily accessible to most visitors to the Galápagos, the national park service has highly restricted visits to this island, and it is primarily used for scientific research. An intensive study of Darwin's finches was conducted here by biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant over a period of 20 years. They examined the behaviour and life cycles of finches, with the results strongly supporting Darwin's theory of evolution. Their efforts were documented in the Pulitzer Prize winning book The Beak of the Finch.
Daphne is home to a variety of other birds including Galápagos Martins, Blue-footed Booby, Nazca Booby, Short-eared Owls, Red-billed Tropicbirds and Magnificent Frigatebirds.
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If head and limb have beauty and the instep’s high and light
They can spread out what sail they please for all I have to say....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
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